160 PHEASAXTS FOjR rOVETiTS AND AVIARIES. 



e 



lielore or since seen a white pheasant. 'i'he three cocks 

 tiirDcd out never (to my knowledge or the keeper's) were tlie 

 cause of white pliensants or ^wii pheasants lieing bred, and 

 the tliree all disappeared in the second year. (Jn anotlier 

 ]iart of vny estate a white cock pheasant was breil ; he was 

 considered a sacred bird, and lived seven years, when ho 

 disap])eared. Jn the covert he resorted to I killed one pied 

 pheasant, and 1 Ijelieve tha,t one bii'd was the only pie(l 

 pheasant (d" lired thi'oug'h him) that ever was seen.'' ])V 

 Citreful breeding there is no doubt that a permanent whit 

 I'ace miglit be establislied if such a jiroceeding were thoug-ht 

 desiralde, which I much doul)t, as white vai'ieties ;ire 

 generally very deticieut in hardihood. Left to themselves, 

 the white cocks are doubtless driven away from the hens by 

 the stronger and more vigorous dark lairds, and i-arely 

 increase their kind. ^Vhell mate(l in pheasantries the natural 

 colour h;is a strtmg tendency Xo I'eproduce itself; but white, 

 or even ])ied or ])arti-coloured birds, are not always to be 

 ]>r(.)ducod from white parents, as the following letters will 

 sh(_i\v : — " On the man(jr of a. frietul in '^'orkshire ai-e a cocl^ 

 aiul ht'ii ])heasaut entirely and purely white. They inhabit 

 different woods, and are streniuuisly piaitected by the head 

 keeper, wIuj considei-s their presence a proof of the intee'rirv 

 ot his cin-erts, and invariably requests strangers to spare 

 them. There are also a few I'ing-necks in the coverts, wliicli 

 have l)red so ft'ecly with the common sort that, hai-dly 

 a cock pheasant is killed but shows some marks of white 

 aliout his neck, \\diile yiied liirds are so rare that the few 

 that have lieeii shot have been preserved. Tf, then, whito 

 pheasants breeding with ring-necks and other birds produced, 

 as a rule, pied birds, why should there not have lieen ever\- 

 year at least one brood of pied pheasants in these woods in 

 the same proportion as the half-bred ring-necks ': " Another 

 correspondent writes: — "A white hen was conhned in the 

 jdieasantry here for some years with a common jdieasant, but 

 of the progeny there was not one pied bird. A pied cock 



